ABOUT PRAXIS

TEAM PRAXIS

Praxis is a small organisation of ordinary people with extraordinary vision making participatory approach a way of life. The human resources of Praxis include professionals drawn from diverse backgrounds, cultures and nationalities, whose skills are optimally utilised in all its work.

Abhay Kumar (Senior Programme Officer)

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Abhay has extensive experience as a development professional working with Government as well as Non-Government agencies supporting administrative reforms mission in Bihar and development of approaches to entitlement based decentralized planning processes. Apart from these he has been a part of various participatory research processes. Prior to joining Praxis, Abhay was working as Budget analyst with a specific focus on Dalit groups. He has worked on analyzing various State Government’s annual budgets as well as GoI’s annual financial statements. He has also conducted trainings on demystifying budgets and their analyses.

Anindo Banerjee (Director - Internal Programme Initiatives)

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Anindo has over a decade’s experience in international social development, particularly in conducting participatory assessments, policy analysis and capacity building processes. His areas of interest include governance reforms, affirmative action and democratic decentralisation.

Anusha Chandrasekharan (Programme Manager - Communications)

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Anusha has worked as a print journalist with several leading newspapers before moving to communications in the development sector. She is interested in areas of gender and sexuality and has been involved in capacity-building, participatory research and communications in multiple mediums such as participatory video and digital story-telling.

Dheeraj (Senior Programme Officer)

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Dheeraj has more than six years of experience in the realm of community mobilisation, community institution building, participatory monitoring and evaluation, decentralised micro-planning and developing implementation systems. He has directly engaged with communities in the area of gender equality, sustainable livelihoods and realisation and access to rights and entitlements.

Deepti Menon (Programme Assistant)

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Deepti's stepping stone in the development field was through volunteering for the terminally ill children. She has been inclined towards working for children and has been part of research related with child labour and women empowerment.

Shishupal Prajapati (Senior Administrative Officer)

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Shishupal has worked for more than a decade in the Development sector, providing Administrative, Programme and Information Communication Technology support to several organisations. He volunteers with organisations working for the poor and marginalised in his spare time.

M. J. Joseph (Director - South India Operations)

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Joseph has more than two decades of experience in social work research and practice, with a major part of the experience in development research.He has extensive experience in conducting participatory assessments and evaluations and is a proficient facilitator of Participatory Action Research and Participatory Learning Activities (PLA) focused on various areas of social development, with a special emphasis on livelihoods, health and strategic planning processes. Joseph has led participatory action researches addressing agrarian crises among small and marginal farmers, on micro-credit and its role in poverty reduction and on developing eco-restorative approaches in addressing drinking water issues, watershed development, democratic decentralization, local governance and network formation.

Mary George (Fellow)

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With over two decades of experience in the development sector, Mary brings a keen focus on gender issues and equity into research. She has worked closely with grassroots communities across various states in India. Her major areas of work include projects on empowerment of women, community-based disaster preparedness programmes and livelihoods. Mary has been part of community mobilization monitoring process for the past four years. Her major areas of work include projects on empowerment of women, community-based disaster preparedness programmes and livelihoods.

Moulasha Kader (Programme Manager)

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Moulasha is a demographer and researcher by training. He has more than 15 years of experience working with national and international development agencies. For the past 5 years, he has also handled projects focusing on monitoring community mobilization, community participation and water governance. He has good experience in facilitating mixed methods research, involving qualitative, quantitative and participatory methods. His current research interests revolves around issues of religious minorities, child rights, madarassa education, urban poor, maternal and child health.

Md Nishar Alam (Finance Officer)

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Nishar has over 5 years of experience in the areas of Finance & Administration with organisations in the development sector. He is well-versed in the domain of general accounting, payroll, budgeting, journal entry preparation and taxation.

Pradeep Kumar (Administrative Officer)

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Pradeep is trained in TV Production and photography. He is Praxis’s in-house cinematographer, film editor and photographer. Before joining Praxis he worked as a freelance photographer for seven years.

Pradeep Narayanan (Director – Research & Capacity Building)

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Pradeep is a human rights activist-researcher associated with many rights-based NGOs and campaigns in India. He has more than 15 years of experience of working in Government, corporate and the non-governmental sector.For the last six years, he has focused on children’s issues, primarily child labour and its relation to education, child protection, child participation and health. Over the years, he has also handled projects on issues of community participation, water rights, free trade agreements and fair trade.

Priya (Office Assistant)

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Priya has been with the Praxis Chennai office since its inception in 2007. She assists with day to day administrative tasks.

R. Baskar alias Mohan (Consultant)

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Baskar has worked on issues of marginalisation and community mobilisation with sexual minorities, advocating for the rights of people of alternate sexualities to lead a life free of stigma and discrimination. As part of this, he has conducted trainings of trainers in use of self-administrable tools to monitor community mobilisation.

Rajendra Ram (Office Assistant)

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Rajendra Ram has more than 10 years of driving experience. Other than driving the office vehicle, he also assists in day-to-day activities like photocopying, filing, stores and office maintenance.

Ranjit Kumar Jha (General Manager - Finance and Administration)

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Ranjit has an experience of more than 18 years in the development and corporate sector. His key proficiencies include grant and financial management, and developing budget monitoring and financial systems. He manages audits, risk and compliance with Income Tax, provident funds, gratuity and other aspects of financial law. He heads the finance and administration unit of Praxis.

Sabu Varghese V (Adminstrative Officer)

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Sabu has a background in Automobile Engineering. He has more than 15 years of driving experience. Along with managing the office vehicle, he also assists in the day-to-day activities like photocopying, filing, store and office maintenance.

Shireen Kurian (Consultant, Research & Capacity Building)

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Shireen is a journalism and media activist contributing to the Corporate Watch initiative of Praxis. She has experience in CSR-related work and projects in effective communication and documentation to build credibility and support for the development sector. Her interests lie in gender issues, development media, law, civic issues and human rights.

Sharmistha Sarkar (Fellow)

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Sharmistha has fifteen years of experience in planning and management of nutrition, child survival, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programmes, along with participatory planning and monitoring, advocacy, strengthening local governance, institutional strengthening, with diverse target groups. She has been involved in various participatory and policy research projects in the area of community mobilisation, social exclusion, corporate social responsibility, decentralisation, nutrition and food security.

Shilpi Mishra (Programme Officer)

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Shilpi has prior experience of working with media houses and on concerning media accountability. Her key interest areas are gender, governance, and equity and development journalism. She has been involved in many projects focused on sanitation workers, disaster management, informal workers, gender, health, etc. Her key competencies are participatory research, documentation, training and impact assessment.

Sowmyaa Bharadwaj (Deputy Director – Research & Capacity Building)

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Sowmyaa has over a decade's experience in the development sector with expertise and interest in poverty, water, sanitation and hygiene, gender, urban development and rights. An experienced facilitator and a practitioner of participatory approaches, she has been involved in various trainings and capacity building initiatives with a range of communities and groups as well as been part of several participatory research studies, monitoring designs, assessments and evaluations.

Stanley Joseph (Consultant, Research & Capacity Building)

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Stanley is a professional social worker specialised in community development and has more than 13 years of experience of working on community empowerment programs, participatory planning and monitoring, advocacy, public health initiatives and civil society networks. He has extensive experience working on issues of people living with HIV and marginalised communities. Presently he is involved in developing self-administrable tools for community-based organisations.

Tom Thomas (CEO)

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Tom has close to three decades of experience in the development sector. His association with Praxis began in 2000 when he took over as CEO. Prior to joining Praxis, he held senior positions with Action Aid in India, Bangladesh and the UK. He has led Praxis on several important assignments, both nationally and internationally. Tom is also the convener of Corporate Responsibility Watch, a coalition of organisations and individuals tracking responsible business in India. He is also member of several national and international civil society coalitions furthering the idea and praxis of community participation as well as responsible business.

Vijay Prakash (Programme Officer)

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Vijay has experience of working on the issues of poverty and challenges of entrepreneurship among scheduled caste youth. He is competent in participatory research, impact assessment data analysis, documentation and training. His research interest includes gender, rights, dalit issues, and poverty.

Vijeta Laxmi (Senior Programme Officer)

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Vijeta has a background in social work and human resource management. Her key competencies are participatory research, documentation, project management and networking. She has prior experience of working on the issues of untouchability, food security, livelihood, health, etc, besides, her interest lies in the areas of gender, human rights, sexuality, health and sanitation.

Mr. Tomy Mathew (President)

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Tomy Mathew heads Elements, a business endeavour committed to organic and fair trade. He is the founder promoter of Fair Trade Alliance Kerala, a small farmer collective of 5000 farmers in the Western Ghats of India, engaged in environmentally sensitive stewardship of the soil and trade justice. Tomy was previously the Vice President, Corporate Communications, Alacrity Group of Companies, Chennai.

Mr. Tom Thomas (Secretary)

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Tom Thomas has been in the development sector for around two decades. His association with Praxis began in 2000, when he took over as CEO. Prior to joining Praxis, he held senior positions with Action Aid in India, Bangladesh and the UK. He has led Praxis on several important assignments, both nationally and internationally.

Mr. V.S.Thyagrajan (Treasurer)

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Thyagarajan is a Chartered Accountant by profession and has over four decades of corporate and development experience. His specialization is in Governance and Accountability and he has vast experience in managing finance, HR and administration in the NGO sector. He has worked as the Director of Finance and Administration for ActionAid (UK) for its India Programme for eight years and been in the same capacity for AMREF (African Medical Research Foundation) for six years. AMREF is an International NGO focused on health, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya . He has served for six years from 2007 to 2013 on the board of Richmond Fellowship Society, an NGO working in the area of psycho-social rehabilitation, which has their headquarters in Bangalore. He is currently an advisor to the Board of Belaku Trust, an NGO that works with health and livelihood of rural women and children. He is also on the State Advisory Board of the Karnataka Branch of the WWF - India (World Wide Fund for Nature).

Ms. Albertina Almeida (Member)

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Tina is primarily an activist and has been at the forefront of rights issues in Goa as well as nationally/ globally. She is also a lawyer with twenty years of legal practice. As a researcher, her areas of research have been mainly on gender, children's rights, land rights and law issues. She also has a book to her credit, titled "TUG AND TEAR: DEALING WITH CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE”. Active on the communal harmony front, Tina is the co-convenor of Citizens' Initiatives for Communal Harmony.

Dr T.S. Syamala (Member)

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Syamala is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic Change with over 27 years of experience in gender and anthropological studies. Her areas of specialisation are population and health and women and child health. Some of her recent research projects include a) Functioning of Ultrasound Sonography Centres in Karnataka, 2005; b) Menopause: An Emerging Issue in India, 2004; and c) Project on Sex Differentials in Nutritional Status and Morbidity among Children in Karnataka.